Posted April 3, 2008
Crane ’07 Named Solicitor General’s Office Bristow Fellow
Paul Crane ’07 has been named a Bristow Fellow for the Office of the Solicitor General, one of the most prestigious positions available to recent law school graduates. Bristow Fellows work for one year at the Solicitor General’s Office in the U.S. Department of Justice, drafting briefs in opposition to petitions filed against the government in the U.S. Supreme Court and monitoring cases in lower courts for appeal. Four Bristow Fellows are named each year.
Crane, currently a clerk for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III ’72 on the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, had applied for the fellowship but hadn’t yet interviewed when he received a call to join the Solicitor General’s Office.
“Of course, I couldn’t say ‘yes’ fast enough,” Crane said. He starts his new job in August, after wrapping up his clerkship in June and taking the Virginia bar exam in July.
Crane “is superbly talented,” said Law School Dean John C. Jeffries Jr., who taught Crane’s first-year criminal law class. “He was not only at the top of his class [at graduation] but also widely known, well-liked, and sincerely admired by his classmates.”
Crane, an Atlanta native, served on the managing board of the Virginia Law Review and was a Peer Advisor for the Classes of 2008 and 2009. He volunteered as a court monitor for the Domestic Violence Project and also as a big sibling through Action for a Better Living Environment. During his first-year summer he worked for a U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago and for law firm Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., the following summer.
Crane hopes to continue in government service after his Bristow Fellowship ends. “It’s an amazing opportunity to get to work with and learn from some of the best lawyers in the country,” he said. “It’s overwhelming.”
Crane said he was thankful to the Law School and its faculty “for everything they've done to allow me to have this opportunity.”
• Reported by Mary Wood